Exhibition Archives

Suitcases! Stories of an Object in War
(May 27, 2025–January 4, 2026)

For this temporary exhibition, the museum has designed an exhibition itinerary centered on an everyday object: the suitcase. Today synonymous with escape or travel, it also illustrates other realities in the context of World War II: the exile of Spanish Republicans, the exodus, the Resistance’s struggle, deportation, the extermination of Jews, and the preservation of historical records for future generations. Drawing on its own collections and numerous loans, the museum aims to explore this object and its various uses. As a history museum and a civic resource, the Museum of the Resistance and Deportation thus continues its reflection on history, the traces that remain today, and the questions they raise in our contemporary world.

Available for purchase at the Museum of the Resistance and Deportation gift shop, in bookstores, and directly from the publisher
Valises! Stories of an Object in War – Published by SilvanaEditorial – August 2025

Gathering Around the Table: Sharing Stories
(September 8, 2023 – September 29, 2024)

To mark its reopening, the museum has chosen to highlight its special connection with its donors. Since its founding in the late 1960s, it has built its collection from objects and archives donated by former members of the Resistance and deportees, and later by their families.

Over the years, he has developed considerable expertise in this field, documenting not only the personal stories and life journeys of those who lived through World War II, but also their place in collective memory and the ways in which that memory is passed down.

Through a series of encounters with donors captured by photographer Brigitte Chartreux, this exhibition offers a behind-the-scenes look at these extraordinary meetings, the stories being told, the objects and archives being uncovered, and the emotions that move us. To fully convey the artistic, poetic, and deeply human dimensions of this essential work, the museum has conceived this exhibition combining photographs and narratives, because images and words are part of the same language.